U.K. women slam sexism of ‘Basic Instinct’ slur on lawmaker

Women from across British politics called Monday for action to tackle misogyny after a newspaper ran a story accusing the deputy opposition leader of trying to “distract” the prime minister during debates by crossing and uncrossing her legs.

The Mail on Sunday quoted an anonymous Conservative lawmaker as saying Labour Party Deputy Leader Angela Rayner tried to throw Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson “off his stride” as she sat across from him in the House of Commons. The article called it “a fully-clothed Parliamentary equivalent of Sharon Stone’s infamous scene in the 1992 film ‘Basic Instinct,’ ” in which Stone distracts police interrogators while wearing a short skirt.

Rayner accused “Boris Johnson’s cheerleaders” of using “desperate, perverted smears.”

“I stand accused of a ‘ploy’ to “distract” the helpless PM — by being a woman, having legs and wearing clothes,” she wrote on Twitter. “Women in politics face sexism and misogyny every day — and I’m no different.”

Rayner, who comes from a working-class family in northern England, left school when she was 16 and got her political start in the trade union movement. That makes a sharp contrast with Johnson, who was educated at the elite private school Eton and Oxford University. Johnson has sometimes struggled to parry her attacks during debates.

The prime minister condemned the article, writing on Twitter: “As much as I disagree with Angela Rayner on almost every political issue, I respect her as a parliamentarian and deplore the misogyny directed at her anonymously today.”